Member of Technical Staff - Electronics Engineer, Actuators & Drives, Frontier AI & Robotics

Amazon; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon is seeking a Member of Technical Staff - Electronics Engineer to own motor-drive electronics for FAR's robotic actuators. You will design inverter power stages, gate drivers, sensing circuits, and power management to enable high-density, reliable actuation across robot platforms.

You will lead hardware bring-up, testing, and DFm guidelines while collaborating with firmware and mechanical teams to deliver integrated actuator systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or a closely related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional experience in power electronics design with ownership of motor drive hardware.
• Expertise in inverter and motor drive circuit design, MOSFET/IGBT selection, gate driver and thermal management.

Responsibilities

• Conceptualize, design, and validate motor drive electronics for in-house robotic actuators.
• Lead PCB-level design of motor drive boards ensuring signal integrity, thermal and EMC requirements.
• Characterize inverter switching performance and thermal behavior across actuator variants.
• Define current and position sensing interfaces to support high-bandwidth motor control.

Skills

Design verification

Power electronics

Motor drive design

Schematic capture

PCB layout

Test and validation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or closely related field

Tools

Altium

KiCad

Cadence

SPICE

Job description

Member of Technical Staff - Electronics Engineer, Actuators & Drives, Frontier AI & Robotics

Job ID: 10426062 | Amazon.com Services LLC

Join Amazon's Frontier AI & Robotics team and take ownership of the electronics that make our robots move. As a Member of Technical Staff - Electronics Engineer, Actuators & Drives, you will conceptualize, design, and test the motor drive electronics that power our in-house robotic actuators—from the gate drivers and power stages that command motor current to the sensing circuits and communication interfaces that give our robots proprioceptive awareness. Your printed circuit board (PCB) designs will live inside each of our next-generation robotic systems, directly enabling the embodied intelligence that is central to FAR's mission.

Key job responsibilities

• Conceptualize, design, and validate motor drive electronics for in-house robotic actuators, including inverter power stages, gate driver circuits, current and position sensing, and power management subsystems from concept through prototype and production
• Lead PCB-level design of compact, high-power-density motor drive boards, including schematic capture, component selection, and collaboration with PCB layout engineers to achieve signal integrity, thermal, and EMC requirements in constrained actuator form factors
• Characterize and optimize inverter switching performance, efficiency, and thermal behavior across the full operating envelope of FAR's actuator variants, using bench measurements and simulation to guide design decisions
• Define and implement current sensing architectures (shunt-based, Hall-effect, or integrated IC-based) and position/velocity sensing interfaces (encoder, resolver, Hall sensor) to support high-bandwidth FOC firmware on microcontrollers and DSPs
• Partner with firmware engineers to define hardware-software interfaces for motor drive control loops, fault detection logic, and communication protocols (CAN, EtherCAT, SPI), ensuring electronics designs support the real-time control requirements of robotic actuation
• Collaborate with motor design and mechanical engineers to specify the electrical characteristics of custom BLDC and PMSM motors, align inverter design to motor parameters, and validate the integrated actuator electro-mechanical system
• Lead hardware bring-up, functional testing, and failure analysis for new actuator electronics prototypes, developing test plans and characterization setups that systematically validate design performance and identify failure modes
• Define electronics design standards, review processes, and design-for-manufacturability (DFM) guidelines for FAR's actuator drive portfolio, and mentor junior engineers in motor drive electronics design best practices

A day in the life

Your day centers on the full electronics development cycle for our custom actuator drive systems. You might start by reviewing simulation results for a new inverter topology, then transition to the lab to characterize switching losses and thermal performance on a prototype motor drive board. Later in the day, you could be collaborating with motor design engineers on back-EMF waveform analysis, refining gate drive timing to optimize inverter efficiency, or working with firmware engineers to define current sensing interfaces and hardware abstraction layers. Across the week, you'll be involved in schematic capture and PCB layout reviews with your design team, participating in design review gates, and iterating on hardware based on test findings. You'll navigate the challenge of fitting high-performance drive electronics into compact, thermally constrained actuator packages—designing for the power density, reliability, and robustness our robots demand. Your work will span from concept and architecture through silicon bring-up, and you'll play a key role in defining the electronics roadmap for FAR's actuator portfolio.

About the team

Frontier AI & Robotics (FAR) is the team at Amazon building the next generation of embodied intelligence. FAR drives the development and implementation of advanced AI models within Amazon’s operations that enable robots to see, reason, and act on the world around them, supporting a number of different warehouse automation tasks.

Basic Qualifications

• Experience in developing functional specifications, design verification plans and functional test procedures
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or a closely related technical field
• 5+ years of professional experience in power electronics design, with demonstrated ownership of motor drive or power converter hardware from concept through prototype and test
• Expertise in inverter and motor drive circuit design, including MOSFET/IGBT selection, gate driver design, power stage layout, and thermal management for brushless DC or permanent magnet synchronous motor applications
• Experience with current sensing circuit design and PCB-level integration of position/velocity sensing interfaces for motor control applications
• Proficiency with electronics design tools including schematic capture and PCB layout (Altium, KiCad, Cadence, or similar) and SPICE-based circuit simulation
• Hands-on experience with power electronics lab characterization, including use of oscilloscopes, power analyzers, thermal cameras, and network analyzers for drive circuit validation

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing motor drive electronics for robotic actuators, collaborative robots, or other high-performance electromechanical systems where power density and dynamic performance are critical
• Familiarity with wide-bandgap semiconductor devices (GaN, SiC) and their application in compact, high-efficiency motor drive designs
• Experience with integrated gate driver ICs, isolated power supply design, and bootstrap circuitry for high-side switch control in half-bridge and full-bridge inverter topologies
• Knowledge of EMC design practices for motor drive electronics and experience achieving CE/FCC compliance in power conversion hardware
• Experience developing test automation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation setups for motor drive electronics qualification
• Background working in fast-paced hardware development environments such as robotics companies, aerospace, or research institutions where rapid iteration and custom hardware are standard

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $150,000/year in our lowest geographic market up to $300,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors, including market location, and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits.